Okay, jumping around the video to the key points, summary is they have much heavier lever pull during non-maximal braking events. Though at threshold braking, they are indeed crazy powerful and not much harder to pull than anything else. However, the required force at smaller inputs fatigues the hands in a big way. He does some cool experiments hanging weight off various levers to illustrate the point.
Hand pain is a complicated problem and reducing it to one reason isn't really trivial. I have long running hand issues and it's pretty obvious to me when certain components have a negative effect on it, but determining why is often not straightforward. Either way, I didn't get that from these at all. If anything they, like the Radics and Hopes, reduce it because it requires less braking in advance compared to less powerful brakes I've tried.
There is no doubt the lever pull isn't as light through the deadstroke as the Hope or Hayes, but I really doubt the force required to pull through it was the source of his hand pain. I don't find it that significant and I've had brakes that make my hands tired, so far these haven't. The amount of force through the deadstroke isn't really that important as long as it's within reason, because most people don't spend much time there and tbh I don't find it that firm. The force once the pads engage is what matters, that's when your hand is going to be putting the most effort in, and these aren't any more exhausting than brakes from most other brands in that regard, including Hayes. Probably the only one I'd put as a standout in this category are the Hopes (pending trying Trickstuff and Intend soonish). Having to deathgrip the brakes or run the levers super far out due to a lack of power is the fatigue problem I have with most brakes.
I'd also point out the graph in the middle was entirely fabricated, he admitted it himself. IMO that was poor form, even if I generally like Dale's content, and somewhat misleading. I don't think that was his intention, but if you are going to offer a graph of brake performance, it should be objectively measured. The bottle trick was clever, but overall meaningless without measuring force at the caliper. Saying it requires x pressure to compress the lever doesn't mean anything without knowing what the caliper is doing for that pressure, just because it stops doesn't mean you are only measuring deadstroke and he offers no indication what type of power you get out of that force.
Anyway, I didn't have this issue and I'm usually the first one to notice this sort of thing, so take that FWIW. I'd also note he's around 160lbs per a previous video, which IMO is probably on the lighter side for these. I think people having problems with these are generally going to be under 190-200lbs, there's a limit to what cutting down to a 180mm rotor will achieve and lighter riders will probably struggle more with the way power engages compared to heavier riders
